An Effective Paradigm for Conditioning Visual Perception in Human Subjects

Perception ◽  
1982 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 663-669 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Davies ◽  
Geoffrey L Davies ◽  
Spencer Bennett
Keyword(s):  
Visual Perception ◽  
Conditioned Stimulus ◽  
Classical Conditioning ◽  
Unconditioned Stimulus ◽  
Experimental Evidence ◽  
Human Subjects ◽  
Image Sequences ◽  
Mental Process ◽  
Visual Responses

Repeated pairing of an auditory conditioned stimulus with a weak visual unconditioned stimulus produced extended image sequences and visual responses conditioned to the tone alone. The experiment is set into the context of Pavlov's view of Helmholtz's “unconscious inference” thus providing experimental evidence linking the higher mental process of perception with classical conditioning.

scholarly journals No Evaluative Conditioning Effects with Briefly Presented Stimuli

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tobias Heycke ◽  
Christoph Stahl
Keyword(s):  
Conditioned Stimulus ◽  
Unconditioned Stimulus ◽  
Visual Stimuli ◽  
Neutral Stimulus ◽  
Evaluative Conditioning ◽  
Visual Modality ◽  
Contingency Awareness ◽  
The Us

Evaluative Conditioning (EC) changes the preference towards a formerly neutral stimulus (Conditioned Stimulus; CS), by pairing it with a valent stimulus (Unconditioned Stimulus; US), in the direction of the valence of the US. When the CS is presented subliminally (i.e., too briefly to be consciously perceived), contingency awareness between CS and US can be ruled out. Hence, EC effects with subliminal CSs would support theories claiming that contingency awareness is not necessary for EC effects to occur. Recent studies reported the absence of EC with briefly presented CSs when both CS and US were presented in the visual modality, even though the CSs were identified at above-chance levels. Challenging this finding, Heycke and colleagues (2017) found some evidence for an EC effect with briefly presented visual stimuli in a cross-modal paradigm with auditory USs, but that study did not assess CS visibility. The present study attempted to replicate this EC effect with different stimuli and a CS visibility check. Overall EC for briefly presented stimuli was absent, and results from the visibility check show that an EC effect with briefly presented CSs was only found, when the CSs were identified at above-chance levels.

A Classical Conditioning Procedure for the Hearing Assessment of Multiply Handicapped Persons

1989 ◽  
Vol 54 (1) ◽  
pp. 88-93 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giulio E. Lancioni ◽  
Frans Coninx ◽  
Paul M. Smeets
Keyword(s):  
Classical Conditioning ◽  
Unconditioned Stimulus ◽  
Children And Adolescents ◽  
Operant Conditioning ◽  
Conditioning Procedure ◽  
Handicapped Children ◽  
Visual Reinforcement ◽  
Classical Procedure ◽  
Hearing Assessment ◽  
Classical Conditioning Procedure

The present study evaluated the viability of a classical conditioning procedure with an air puff as unconditioned stimulus for the hearing assessment of multiply handicapped children and adolescents. All subjects were also exposed to operant conditioning, which consisted of a modified visual reinforcement audiometry (VRA) procedure or involved edible reinforcement contingent on a reaching response (for blind subjects). The findings indicate that the classical conditioning procedure was successful with 21 of the 23 subjects, whereas operant conditioning succeeded with 15 of the subjects. Thresholds obtained with classical conditioning were mostly equal to or within 10 dB of those obtained with operant conditioning and also matched previously available hearing estimates. These findings seem to suggest that the classical procedure can be a useful behavioral alternative for audiological assessment.

Possession is Nine-Tenths of the Law: possession, property, and coordination in a Hawk–Dove Experiment

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Marco Fabbri ◽  
Matteo Rizzolli ◽  
Antonello Maruotti
Keyword(s):  
Game Theory ◽  
Experimental Evidence ◽  
Human Subjects ◽  
Legal Systems ◽  
Lab Experiment ◽  
Game Players ◽  
The Law

Abstract In all legal systems, possession and property are inextricably linked. Game theory captures this relationship in the Hawk–Dove game: players competing for an asset are better off when the possessor plays Hawk and the intruder plays Dove (the bourgeois strategy) so that property can emerge as a spontaneous convention. This theory has been supported by large experimental evidence with animals. This paper presents a lab experiment where possession is manipulated to study the emergence of the property convention with human subjects. We show that the highest coordination emerges when possession is achieved meritoriously and that possession induces only bourgeois coordination (never antibourgeois).

Exploring the Contextual Renewal of Conditioned Attitudes After Counterconditioning

2020 ◽  
Vol 38 (4) ◽  
pp. 287-323
Author(s):  
Bertram Gawronski ◽  
Skylar M. Brannon ◽  
Katarina Blask ◽  
Eva Walther
Keyword(s):  
Conditioned Stimulus ◽  
Boundary Conditions ◽  
Unconditioned Stimulus ◽  
Attitude Change ◽  
Evaluative Conditioning ◽  
Verbal Information

Research on contextualized attitude change suggests that, even when coun-terattitudinal information effectively influences evaluations in the context in which this information was learned, previously formed attitudes sometimes continue to determine evaluations in any other context (contextual renewal). Expanding on evidence for contextual renewal in attitude change based on verbal information, five experiments tested the emergence of contextual renewal in evaluative conditioning, involving pairings of a conditioned stimulus with a valenced unconditioned stimulus. Counter to the notion of contextual renewal, counterconditioning changed initially conditioned attitudes to the same extent irrespective of the context. Verbal information presented with the same procedural parameters produced contextual renewal effects only when evaluations were not measured between the formation of initial attitudes and the learning of counterattitudinal information. The results suggest two previously unidentified boundary conditions of contextualized attitude change that need to be reconciled with extant theories of evaluative learning.

scholarly journals Multimodal stimuli modulate rapid visual responses during reaching

2019 ◽  
Vol 122 (5) ◽  
pp. 1894-1908 ◽  
Author(s):  
Isabel S. Glover ◽  
Stuart N. Baker
Keyword(s):  
Median Nerve ◽  
Reticular Formation ◽  
Visual Target ◽  
Human Subjects ◽  
Vestibular Stimulation ◽  
Auditory Stimuli ◽  
Visual Responses ◽  
Healthy Human ◽  
Reaching Task ◽  
Upper Limb Function

The reticulospinal tract plays an important role in primate upper limb function, but methods for assessing its activity are limited. One promising approach is to measure rapid visual responses (RVRs) in arm muscle activity during a visually cued reaching task; these may arise from a tecto-reticulospinal pathway. We investigated whether changes in reticulospinal excitability can be assessed noninvasively using RVRs, by pairing the visual stimuli of the reaching task with electrical stimulation of the median nerve, galvanic vestibular stimulation, or loud sounds, all of which are known to activate the reticular formation. Surface electromyogram (EMG) recordings were made from the right deltoid of healthy human subjects as they performed fast reaching movements toward visual targets. Stimuli were delivered up to 200 ms before target appearance, and RVR was quantified as the EMG amplitude in a window 75–125 ms after visual target onset. Median nerve, vestibular, and auditory stimuli all consistently facilitated the RVRs, as well as reducing the latency of responses. We propose that this facilitation reflects modulation of tecto-reticulospinal excitability, which is consistent with the idea that the amplitude of RVRs can be used to assess changes in brain stem excitability noninvasively in humans. NEW & NOTEWORTHY Short-latency responses in arm muscles evoked during a visually driven reaching task have previously been proposed to be tecto-reticulospinal in origin. We demonstrate that these responses can be facilitated by pairing the appearance of a visual target with stimuli that activate the reticular formation: median nerve, vestibular, and auditory stimuli. We propose that this reflects noninvasive measurement and modulation of reticulospinal excitability.

Effects of Pentobarbital and Isoflurane on Conditioned Learning after Transient Global Cerebral Ischemia in Rabbits

2000 ◽  
Vol 92 (1) ◽  
pp. 171-171 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jae Young Kwon ◽  
Andreas Bacher ◽  
Donald J. Deyo ◽  
John F. Disterhoft ◽  
Tatsuo Uchida ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cerebral Ischemia ◽  
Conditioned Stimulus ◽  
Unconditioned Stimulus ◽  
Conditioned Response ◽  
Global Cerebral Ischemia ◽  
Eyeblink Response ◽  
Trace Interval ◽  
Transient Global Cerebral Ischemia ◽  
Isoflurane Group ◽  
Conditioned Responses

Background The acquisition of a conditioned eyeblink response has been used extensively to study the neurologic substrates of learning and memory. We examined the effects of the anesthetics isoflurane and pentobarbital, or hypothermia (30 degrees C), on the ability of rabbits to acquire an eyeblink conditioned response after 6.5 min of cerebral ischemia. Methods New Zealand white rabbits (n = 48) were randomly assigned to sham, normothermic, hypothermic, isoflurane, or pentobarbital groups. In the normothermic, hypothermic, isoflurane, and pentobarbital groups, 6.5 min of global cerebral ischemia was produced. In animals randomized to the isoflurane and pentobarbital groups, a pattern of burst suppression was achieved on the electroencephalogram before the start of the ischemic episode. Animals in the hypothermia group were cooled to 30 degrees C before ischemia. Seven days after ischemia, eyeblink training was started using an audible tone presented for 100 ms as the conditioned stimulus. The unconditioned stimulus was an air puff directed at the cornea. The delay between the end of conditioned stimulus and the start of the unconditioned stimulus (the trace interval) was 300 ms in duration. A conditioned response was defined as an eyeblink that was initiated during the trace interval. Eighty trials per day and 15 days of training were delivered. Results Neurologic deficits were greatest in the normothermia group, and these animals also had fewer conditioned responses than those in the sham, hypothermia, or pentobarbital groups. Animals in the isoflurane group had an intermediate number of conditioned responses that was not significantly different from the normothermia group. Conclusions This study demonstrates that a brief episode of cerebral ischemia results in the impairment of associative learning. Hypothermia and burst-suppressive doses of pentobarbital were able to improve neurobehavioral outcome as measured by ability to acquire a trace conditioned response.

scholarly journals Social anxiety compared to depression better accounts for enhanced acquisition of self-reported anxiety toward faces paired with negative evaluation in a conditioning task

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 204380871988830
Author(s):  
Klint Fung ◽  
Lynn E. Alden
Keyword(s):  
Social Anxiety ◽  
Conditioned Stimulus ◽  
Unconditioned Stimulus ◽  
Differential Conditioning ◽  
Negative Evaluation ◽  
Diagnostic Validity ◽  
Potential Mechanism ◽  
Subjective Ratings ◽  
Socially Anxious ◽  
Larger Sample

Previous studies have shown that social anxiety was associated with enhanced acquisition of anxiety as measured by subjective ratings in conditioning tasks using faces as the conditioned stimulus and negative evaluation as the unconditioned stimulus. However, a recent study failed to replicate the effect. The current study re-examined the enhanced acquisition effect with a larger sample, explored whether differences in expectancy of negative evaluation was a potential mechanism, and compared the contribution of social anxiety to that of depression on enhanced acquisition. Two hundred and sixty-three unselected participants took part in a differential conditioning task in which three faces each were paired with hostile, neutral, and friendly reaction during acquisition, and all three were paired with neutral reaction during extinction. Results replicated earlier findings that participant social anxiety was associated with enhanced acquisition of anxiety. Socially anxious participants did not show higher expectancy of hostile reaction during acquisition, which suggested the need to consider alternative mechanisms underlying enhanced acquisition. Depression was also associated with enhanced acquisition; however, that association was accounted for by social anxiety. The effect of social anxiety was significant over and above depression, which supported its diagnostic validity.

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